Obama is making the right choices for science

GIVEN the importance of energy policy in President-Elect Obama’s plans to revitalise the US economy, some pundits are worried that his choice for energy secretary, Nobel laureate physicist Steve Chu, lacks direct political experience. They shouldn’t.

As director of one of the major US national laboratories, Chu has ample experience navigating the political waters in Washington. More importantly, decisions on US energy policy over the next decade should follow on from scientific and technological considerations, not the other way around.

Decisions on energy policy should follow science, not the other way around